View from Our Bedroom Window

You are sleeping in the room alone now You are restless in the night When the lightning from the storm strikes, you shine For a second in the light I wait For a moment when the weather breaks I can feel you in the mattress shake I can see the way an old pain holds you Morning falling in the frame You stay down I faced my failure in no way I escaped it In the calm before a breakdown takes Like a rapture in the night You fight hard I faced my own pain in no way I embraced it In the bedroom with the door locked tight Like a coward when the flash burns bright I'll hide Your hands burnt on the torch's flame Lighting the path away Brighter than lightning and burning Striking the ground We spend summers awake We shake at shadow shapes The wind it rattles our chains We're always turning around You were standing in the doorway You were staring in the flames How the fire from the house next door mixed With the colors from the cop cars I saw Neighbors gathered in the alleyway In the summer in the heat I wait for a way that I can chase your pain out Gather water for the flames I wait Nights we both shook Any noise echoed in our room Rattled on the floor like shells scattering Or like hail falling on the hood of our car Do you remember that drive south? Coastbound just us two Savannah west in the mirror And winter in rearview burning How the storm fell so harshly we felt swallowed And traffic stopped before and behind us Hard rain in sheets grey and unbroken Hazards flashed dimly in all directions Like small satellites or like lighthouse beacons We turned the radio off I gripped the wheel tight When the storm burst and clouds split suddenly open to the sky All colors at once and us dumbstruck with love and terror both As if before us stood temples ancient and terrifying The light refracting truth to see death and life in all things Your hands burnt on the torch's flame I was the last to change Strike me like a lightning bolt and burning me down Your hands burnt on the torch's flame I was the last to change Strike me like a lightning bolt and burning me down The wind rattles our chains We shake our fists at the pain We shake at shadow shapes We cup our hands in the storm And watch our houses burning We catch the rain to fight it